Report on Interim Meeting - January 2012

A Summary of the Major Matters Considered by Interim Meeting

January 14, 2012

There were two major items on the agenda of the January 2012 Interim Meeting:

The Yearly Meeting’s Financial Situation

 PYM’s new treasurer, Ron Ploeg, reported on PYM’s current financial situation.

Doug Meaker, on behalf of the Financial Oversight Working Group (FOWG), reported on FOWG’s recommendations that the Yearly Meeting stop the practice of commingling income from restricted and unrestricted funds, that the Yearly Meeting open a line of credit to cover temporary cash flow needs, and that the General Secretary be directed to petition outside trustees to release enough of the endowment they are holding for the benefit of PYM to cover identified needs.

Andrew Anderson, Clerk of Financial Stewardship, reported on recent actions of the Financial Stewardship Committee. Essentially all of the information that was shared at Interim Meeting is contained in “A Letter to the Members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Respecting the Yearly Meeting’s Finances” that was sent on January 4, 2012 to all PYM households for which PYM has email addresses. This eight page letter is currently posted on PYM’s website.

Interim Meeting received the reports noted above and approved opening a line of credit for up to $500,000 to cover cash flow needs for general operations.

 This segment of the meeting concluded with time of worship sharing. The tone of the worship sharing was respectful, sad that we are in this situation, but appreciative of the work that is being done to get us out of it.

Military Tax Refusal Witness

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting recently received a levy  from the IRS demanding that PYM pay over to the IRS any property held by PYM, belonging to our employee Priscilla Adams. For PYM such property would consist of Priscilla’s future earnings.    Priscilla is Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting’s Regional Secretary for Quaker Concerns and has been a military war tax resister for many years.  PYM’s Military Tax Refusal policy was  was approved by Yearly Meeting in session in 1988 and amended in 2010. 

Interim Meeting  directed that a letter be prepared, addressed to the Internal Revenue Service, to be signed “Interim Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends,” respectfully declining to honor the levy.

PYM’s Military Tax Refusal Policy is grounded in the Friends Peace Testimony and in Friends respect for individual acts of conscience.

Documents

The complete agenda and supporting documents for January 2012 Interim Meeting may be found on the Interim Meeting Minutes & Documents page on this website.

Note

This report provides highlights of the worship, reports, discernment and decisions of Interim Meeting and is not the official Minutes of Interim Meeting.  Official Minutes of Interim Meeting are posted in Interim Meeting Minutes & Documents, under the appropriate month, after the Minutes receive final approval by Interim Meeting.